


Deanoru as Artists

by ArtofPadillaAZ



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Fluff, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29665554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtofPadillaAZ/pseuds/ArtofPadillaAZ
Summary: Series of one shots with Deanoru drawing/coloring as kids.
Relationships: Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

Nico loves quiet time. It happens every day twice a day two hours each time. The first one is so Mama and Papa can work from home with ease. Mama says after being at Wizard all day working quietly at home helps her and Papa come up with new solutions to problems. The second quiet time is before bed time. Sometimes it starts with a bath and other times it starts with an episode of Pokemon, but it always ends the same way. Mama and Papa read Nico a bedtime story. Sometimes it’s a story from an actual book with pictures and sometimes Papa makes up a story.  
Right now, it’s quiet time number one. It started awhile ago when Mama started playing music through the new speakers Mama and Papa installed around the house. Right now, Nico’s trying to put on some new socks because she spilt orange juice on her other ones. She can’t put on her sockies like Papa does. No amount of pulling is helping. It just falls off her foot every time.  
She kicks everything away from her and tosses the sock in her hand as far away as she can. It lands on Neko. Neko isn’t really a cat. Mama says she’s a red panda, and red pandas are endangered. That means there aren’t many of them left and are protected by governments.  
“I’m sorry Neko.” Nico tells the plushie, giving her a little pat on the head. “Let’s go see what Amy is doing.”  
Nico tucks Neko the red panda under her arm and heads to Amy’s room. The pair stand outside the door watching Amy play with Martha. Martha is Amy’s yellow teddy bear.  
“You wanna go play with Martha and Amy, Neko?” Nico whispers.  
No. What’s Mama doing, Nico.  
“I don’t know. Let’s go see.”  
Nico and Neko start on their mission. They silently cross the field between Amy’s room and the stairs one step at a time. Too fast and they’ll have to run away from the monsters. Only Nico and Neko can see the monsters. They appear every so often and Nico and Neko have to practice being stealthy like ninjas.  
Nico rushed down the first couple steps out of the monsters’ sight. She crouched down and placed Neko on the step.  
“Are they gone, Neko.”  
They’re just walking. They’ll be able to see us again soon.  
“Then we better go.” Nico quickly grabs Neko and hurries down the next few steps.  
At the part where the stairs change direction Neko reminds Nico of Mama and Papa’s rule. Walk carefully down the stairs and don’t jump off the last steps. On the last step Nico helps Neko see into Mama’s office. “What’s Mama doing, Neko?” she asks quietly.  
Don’t know. I can’t see.  
Nico pulls Neko back around the corner and looks into Mama’s office herself. “Mama’s not here.”  
She looks down the hall toward the garage and the guest room waiting to see if her mama is coming back. After waiting a few moments she enters the empty office. At the door are Mama’s heels and if Nico stands on her toes she can see something on the desk. She gets closer.  
What is it, Nico?  
“Oh, sorry Neko.” She places Neko on the desk. “It’s a box. I think.”  
Nico turns around facing the desk chair. She puts her hands on one side and pulls herself up putting one leg on the chair at a time. She turns back towards the desk resting on her knees.  
What she thought was a box is actually a book with a zipper to close it. She grabs it and pulls open the zipper spilling everything inside on the desk. She looks up at the hall, half expecting Mama or Papa to come in and tell her to stop, but no one does. She turns her attention back to the items on the desk. There are some bright markers similar to the ones she saw Karolina using the other day and papers.  
What’s on the papers, Nico.  
“I dunno. Let me see.” Nico picks up the nearest one. “Well, that’s Wizard’s logo at the top,” Nico says, showing Neko the little image. “But the rest is a lot of words.” she flips it over to see the back. “This side is blank, Neko. See. Mama always gives me papers like this when I want to color.”  
What about the markers?  
“They’re really bright. Karolina has some like this. She said they’re neon colors.”  
Like the carousel?  
“Yeah! ” Nico lays the paper on the desk and grabs the green marker. “I’m going to draw that.”  
Nico first colors the grass in green. Then the carousel in orange. I few lines of pink for the reigns on the horses and for flowers in the grass, and lines of blue for the sky. She’s almost done getting the sky just right when Mama speaks.  
“Nico what are you doing?”  
Nico jumps and drops the marker. She looks up at Mama, eyes wide. Next to Mama is Papa who gives her a big smile and Nico gives one back. “I’m coloring. See.”  
She holds up the drawing of the carousel.  
Mama’s eyes widen slightly when she sees the drawing. Nico bounces a little with excitement thinking Mama has recognized what she drew. “It’s the carousel at the park!”  
“I see.”  
Papa leans a bit closer to mama and quietly says, “Isn’t that the plans to the cell phone we’re working on?”  
“Yes, it is.”  
Nico puts her drawing on the table. She didn’t draw a picture of a phone. She drew a carousel.  
Suddenly she’s in the air. “Come on, Nico. Let’s go get Amy so we can make dinner.” Papa tells her.  
Nico wraps her legs around him. “Do you like my drawing?”  
“I do.” He tells her as he hands her Neko.  
“Orange is the carousel, pink is the reigns and flowers, grass is green and the sky is blue.”  
“You managed to put a lot of detail in that drawing huh?”  
“Yep. Everything I could remember.” She sees Mama at the desk grabbing the papers Nico dumped out earlier. “Is Mama mad at me ‘cause I used her markers?”  
“No, Nico. Just a little surprised.”  
“But she likes my drawing.”  
“Yes, she does. It’s very important to her.”

The next day Mama introduced Nico to a new folder on her desk. It was blue and filled with papers for Nico to color on.


	2. Chapter 2

Karolina tried hard to listen carefully to her mom’s stories about the light, but it was hard. The book of Gibborum was so long. Much longer than the books Karolina read at daycare. A lot less pictures too. 

This book was different in a lot of other ways too. It smelled funny and the words were all squiggly. Mommy called it a journal filled with her grandpa’s notes. Karolina was ready to fall asleep out of boredom when Mommy turned to a page filled with bright colors.

“What’s that?”

“Your grandfather drew this. He said he saw it one night.”

“Huh” Karolina studied it for a moment. She liked the bright colors. Pink was one of her favorite colors. The lady in the drawing was dancing. That looked like fun. “She’s real?”

“Your grandfather thought so.”

“It’s pretty.”

“It is.”

“Are we done with lessons for today?”

Mommy checked the clock on the nightstand. “We are. I have to go to the church later. Do you want to come or do you want to stay here with daddy?”

“Go with you.”

“Alright. Why don’t you try to take a nap, and I’ll come get you before I leave.”

Karolina laid down pulling her blanket close. “Night.”

Mommy tucked in Karolina’s stuffed white bunny, Rogger, and gave them both a kiss. “Sleep well.”

A few hours later Karolina waited patiently in her mom’s office for her mom to return. Luckily she was left with some crayons and papers. She already drew one picture of the time Nico’s mommy and daddy took them to the beach, but what did she want to draw now?

Karolina looked around the room for ideas. Mommy had a mirror, a family photo from the magazine interview her Mommy and Daddy did, and a cat poster. Karolina thought the poster was cute and that Mommy would like it on the wall in her office, and that’s where it stayed.

None of the things Karolina saw seemed like a good idea, so she thought about things she saw earlier. Remembering the lady in the journal, Karolina began drawing.

First the outline of the lady. Karolina remembered she was standing to the side and her dress was swirl-ly. It didn’t look right. But why? Karolina shrugged it off and began coloring. Pink first. It surrounded the lady. Karolina tried to make it look like clouds. After pink she used yellow. Then orange then a little bit of green.

“What are you drawing, Karolina?”

“Mommy!” Karolina gave her one of her brightest smiles. Karolina followed her mom’s movements as she walked around the coffee table.

“That’s beautiful, Karolina.”

“You think so?”

Mommy sat on the couch next to Karolina and wrapped her arm around her. “I love it.”

“It’s the lady in the journal.”

“I see you got all the colors correct.”

Karolina studied her drawing, comparing it with what she remembered. It was kinda close. Maybe she needed to see the picture again. “I don’t know.”

Mommy gave Karolina a kiss on her head. “I love it, Karolina. I think I know where we can put it.”

“Where?”

“Why don’t we go home, and I’ll show you.”

“Okay.” She grabbed the drawing and started walking to the door.

“Karolina,” Mommy said softly.

Karolina looked back at her pinching her brows together.

“Your crayons.” Mommy reminded her pointing at the table.

“Oh right.” Karolina went back to the table, put the green crayon away, and put the box with the rest of her small collection of toys in the office.

“I’m ready to go now.”

“Alright,” Mama said standing up. She held out her hand for Karolina to hold, “Let’s go to the car.”

Karolina handed her mom the picture as she hopped out of the car. “Where is the picture going?”

“We have to get inside, then I’ll show you.”

“Race you.” Karolina declared before running towards the front door. Karolina ran as fast as she could. She ran so fast she nearly ran into the door as she tried to stop. She placed her hand on the door and towards Mommy bouncing on her toes. “I won!”

Her mommy smiled at her. “You did.” Karolina’s mom reached the door and slipped the key into the lock. “You’re very fast.”

“Thank you. Chase likes racing.”

Mommy pushed the door open. “Let’s go put up your drawing.”

Karolina followed her mommy through the house to their kitchen. “Where we gonna put the drawing in the kitchen.”

“I’ll show you.” Mommy held the drawing to the fridge and pushed some magnets onto the corners.

“Oh, you put it on the fridge with magnets.”

“What do you think? We can see it every day.”

“Yeah, that’s cool. I didn’t know you can put drawings on the fridge.”


	3. Chapter 3

Pride meetings were not something Nico liked. Chase, Gert, and Alex argued all the time. It was Alex's toys and he knew how to use them and Chase was trying to tell Alex how to use them and Gert, when she wasn't checking on Molly, was siding with whoever she liked more that day. And today it was Chase. 

Nico watched them argue for a bit, debating if she should go get Amy or one of their parents or the poor sitter their parents hired to look after them. Where was the sitter anyways? Nico scanned the room looking for the sitter's brown hair and round glasses. Nothing. She turned to the empty seat where Neko was sitting.  _ Maybe they, _ Nico began glancing back at the arguing trio, _ scared him off, Neko. _

_ Maybe. _ Neko replied.

Gert seemed to have enough of the boys arguing and forced herself between the two of them yelling "Both of you shut up!"

Nico shrunk away from the outburst leaning further into the couch in the Wilder's game room. Did Gert have to be so loud?

Both boys started arguing with Gert raising their voices with each word. Nico wanted them to stop but the noise was too much for her to speak up and tell them to stop without her own voice hurting her ears. She ran out of the room throwing open the door as she left. She ran across the lawn to the main house with Neko at her heels. 

Once inside the house, she carefully closed the door. If it had slammed and mama found out it was her she was gonna hear mama raise her voice just a bit above her indoor voice - this would be fine most of the time but right now everything seems too loud.

She knew her parents were in Alex's dad's office. Mama and Papa always made it a point to tell her where they were going to be in case she needed them. She moved towards the office dragging her feet along the floor. They were too heavy to pick up properly.  _ Something wrong Nico? _

_ I'm just sleepy.  _

_ We're almost at Alex's dad's office. _

_ I know Neko. What do you think they're talking about? _

_ Dinosaurs. I like dinosaurs. _

_ Me too!  _

_ Hey, we're here. The door is really big. _

Nico leaned back to see the whole door.  _ Yeah it is really big. _

_ Why is it so big, Nico? _

_ Well, Alex's dad is really tall. _

_ Papa says his name is Geoffrey.  _

_ Right. Geoffrey. Geof-frey.  _ Nico looked at Neko.  _ Are we supposed to knock? _

_ Mama didn't say to. _

_ Mama only said come get me if you need something.  _

They paused to listen for any indication of what they were supposed to do. Neither could make out words just who was speaking. Right now it was Chase's daddy. 

Nico opened the door leaving more than enough space for her and Neko to walk through, and Chase's dad fell silent.

"Nico," Mama said. "Is everything alright?"

Nico walked to her mama much like she walked to the door. In front of Mama, Nico put up her arms. She didn’t have to say a word for Mama to understand what she wanted. Within moments she was scooped up and held. Nico rested her head on Mama’s shoulder and closed her eyes. 

“Nico,” Mama said again. “Is everything alright?”

Nico slowly opened her eyes feeling some of her sleepiness disappear. “Where’s the sitter?”

“He had to go home. Is there a problem?”

“Gert, Chase and Alex are being noisy. It’s really loud.”

“Do you want to go back there and play? I think we could get them to quiet down.”

“No, I’m done playing in there.”

“We’ll go check on them.” Molly’s papá volunteered. “It’s been awhile since we checked on Molly.”

“Her and Amy are playing.” Nico informed him, wrapping a lazy arm around Mama’s neck and closing her eyes once more.

“We’ll be right back.” Nico heard Molly’s papá say. Following that, two people got up and walked nearly as one to the door.

“It was about time for a break anyways.” Karolina’s mommy said.

“Are you almost done with your meeting, mama?”

“Almost, Nico. Would you like to play more or do you want to take a nap?”

Nico thought for a moment measuring her sleepiness. “Play more.”

“Karolina is in the other room coloring. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind some company.” Karolina’s mommy told her.

Nico pushed herself up looking at her mama’s face before giving her a hug saying, “Thank you, Mama.” and climbing down. 

She left the room with more energy than when she entered. Papa was right so far about hugs being enough to help someone feel better. 

She traded one big room for an even bigger room. Nico wasn’t sure she’d call it a living room because it wasn’t like the living room at her house. But it did have a couch and a T.V. so it must be one. For a moment it didn’t look like anyone was in the room. Then she saw Karolina watching her.

“Hi, Karolina.”

“Hi, Nico.”

“What are you doing?”

“Coloring.”

Nico takes a few careful steps closer, “Can I see?”

Karolina pats the empty space next to her, “uh huh.”

When Nico sat down she was expecting stick figures like she draws but it wasn’t. Karolina drew something that looked like a cartoon. Karolina looked like she just started coloring it. Only one person was colored. “Cool! Can I help?”

“Yeah.” 

Nico picked up a light blue crayon and began filling in the shirt of the person closest to her. She tried doing as Mama and Papa had been teaching her. First color along the edge where the lines are, then carefully fill in the space. The only problem with this process is it takes too long for Nico, so she speeds up a bit. Her hand bumps into Karolina’s a few times, but she hasn’t colored outside the lines yet.

With the shirt colored in successfully she grabs a new color for the pants. She starts off coloring with her right hand, bumps into Karolina a few times then switches hands. She’s almost done coloring the pants when Karolina stops her.

“No, Nico. Like this.” Karolina pulls the green crayon out of Nico’s hands and shows her her preferred coloring method. Slow lines up and down. “See, like this. Then you can color all the picture and no more white shows.” 

She gives Nico back the crayon, “your turn.”

Nico returns to how she was coloring before Karolina stopped her. 

“No, no, no. You’re coloring outside the lines Nico.” She pulls the paper closer to her. “How ‘bout I color and you hand me the colors.”

“Okay.” Nico hands over the green and starts looking through Karolina’s pencil box for the next color.

Karolina fills in the sections Nico missed and hands Nico the green when she’s done. Nico replaces the green with a pink.

Nico watches Karolina color. She thinks it's kinda cool. Like watching Mama work. Karolina and Mama get very focused when they’re working, like they’re both doing rocket science or something. 

Karolina fills in the next piece and Nico finds a new color. The process repeats itself many times. The picture is almost fully colored except for the sky and the ground when Karolina’s mommy and Nico’s family comes in.

“Nico, what are you doing?” Papa asks.

“I’m helping Karolina color.” she answers with a big smile.

“Karolina, you didn’t let Nico color with you?” Karolina’s mommy looked a little mad, but she didn’t sound angry. It confused Nico. Maybe how Karolina answers will help her understand better.

“I tried,” Karolina stated simply. “She was scribbling and bumping into me. This way works better. Nico chose all the colors.”

“Nico hasn’t quite figured out how to slow down yet.” Papa added.

“Are you almost done coloring, Karolina?”

“Yeah. I can color the sky and the ground later.” She looked at Nico. “What color for the sky and the ground?”

“Uh. Orange and dark green. It’s almost nighttime.”

“Alright.”

“Nico, you ready to go?” Amy asked.

“Yeah. I wanna go home and see the real Neko. I told her we would play when I got back.”

“Alright then,” Mama said. “Say goodbye to Karolina.”

Nico gave Karolina the biggest hug she could. “Bye. I’ll see you at school on Monday.”

“Bye, Nico.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just the two of them being cute and coloring with chalk at Karolina's house.

Later that day or the next day, I could see them at like 5 or 6 coloring with chalk on the sidewalk or something, and Karolina is just trying to draw a pretty picture, but Nico keeps dumping out the chalk and Karolina keeps trying to put it back in the bucket (in the correct color order too).

Nico and Amy had to spend the night at Karolina's house last night so their parents could have a quiet night at home. Though Mama told Nico it was because Nico was being a little shit. Which Nico repeated to Karolina who told her not to say bad words.

Karolina figured what Nico's mommy said was a joke like all the other times Karolina heard her mommy say that. Nico always smiled really big when her mommy says that. It's one of Nico's favorite things to do - mess with her parents until they tell her "that's enough, Nico".

Nico's other favorite thing to do is annoy Karolina's daddy until he gives her what she wants. This morning, Nico kept telling Karolina's daddy that her mommy lets her have chocolate chip pancakes and chocolate milk every Saturday, and then he made chocolate chip pancakes. He'd never made chocolate chip pancakes before. 

Mommy told Karolina that eventually Nico always gets what she wants like her Mama, but some people are immune to Nico's pestering like Nico's parents and Mommy. 

After breakfast Amy, Nico and Karolina ran outside to play. Amy and Nico were playing with a beach ball in the shade and Karolina sat in the sun coloring with chalk. Karolina liked the sun. It was warm and provided lots of light. She decided to figure out how to show how the warm sun feels in her drawing. She saw a painting that made her feel like she was standing in the sun and she wanted to replicate it. So far it looked like it was going well. She had already used a dark green for the grass under the tree and the leaves on the tree.

Someone was blocking the sun, making Karolina feel cold. "Hi, Karolina."

"Hi, Nico."

"Can I color with you?"

"Yeah."

Nico sat down and began booking through the box of chalk. There was more colors than Nico had at her house. 

Karolina returned to adding a bit more green to her drawing. Eventually Nico would hand her a new color. It was part of their process. Nico chose all the colors and let Karolina do all the coloring. Karolina was more patient than Nico.

A sound similar to coins falling on the floor near Nico caught Karolina’s attention. She looked at Nico and found all the chalk on the ground. “Nico! What did you do?”

“Can’t find a good color.”

Karolina started putting the chalk back in the box in the correct color order. 

Nico grabbed the one’s Karolina put back in the box and placed them with the others on the ground.

“Nico, put them back.” 

“No, I can’t find a good color with them in the box. This is how I do it at my house.”

“We can’t have a mess, Nico.” Karolina tried putting some of the chalk back.

“Karolina, stop. You’re supposed to be coloring and I’m supposed to choose the colors.”

“How can I color when you’re making a mess.” Karolina stated pushing the chalk closest to her drawing away.

“Karolina look.” 

Nico was wearing her bright smile and she pointed at the ground in front of her. She had begun to arrange the colors in order. “See. Now I can see all the colors, and it’s not messy”

Karolina really wanted the chalk back in the box, but unlike Nico’s parents and Karolina’s mommy, Karolina was not immune to Nico’s smile. Karolina let Nico reorganize the chalk.

The two of them finished the drawing right as Karolina’s mommy said it was time to clean up for lunch. It was one of Karolina’s favorite drawings. She made Nico, Amy, and her mommy and daddy promise not to step on it. With her parents extra promise of not washing it away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might have a little bonus chapter ready soon.


	5. Chapter one Alternative

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first started writing I had come up with two ideas for the first chapter, and I decided to post both so here is a different version of chapter one.

Nico loves quiet time. It happens every day twice a day two hours each time. The first one is so Mama and Papa can work from home with ease. Mama says after being at Wizard all day, working quietly at home helps her and Papa come up with new solutions to problems. The second quiet time is before bed time. Sometimes it starts with a bath and other times it starts with an episode of Pokemon, but it always ends the same way: Mama and Papa read Nico a bedtime story. Sometimes it’s a story from an actual book with pictures and sometimes Papa makes up a story.  
Right now, it’s quiet time number one. It started awhile ago when Mama started playing music through the new speakers Mama and Papa installed around the house. Right now, Nico’s trying to get dressed for a tea party in Amy’s room except Nico can’t get dressed by herself. And not for a lack of trying. Nothing seems to move as it should. When she tries to put on pants, she falls. When she tries to put on a shirt, she can’t see and gets scared. She can’t put on her sockies like Papa does. No amount of pulling is helping. It just falls off her foot.  
She kicks everything away from her and tosses the sock as far away as she can. It lands on Neko. Neko isn’t really a cat. Mama says she’s a red panda, and red pandas are endangered. That means there aren’t many of them left and are protected by governments.  
“I’m sorry Neko.” Nico tells the plushie, giving her a little pat on the head. “Let’s go see what Amy is doing.”  
Nico tucks Neko the red panda under her arm and heads to Amy’s room.  
“How come you didn’t change clothes Nico?”  
“Dunno how.”  
Amy nods and goes to her dresser. Nico watches as her sister digs through it until she pulls out a grey scarf. “You can wear this, Nico. I’ll help you put it on.”  
She motions for Nico to come closer. As she carefully wraps it Nico smells Papa’s perfume. It smells a bit like flowers but not in the way Mama’s does.  
“It matches your shirt too. See.”  
Nico looks down at her blue shirt and see’s the scarf matching the letters. She looks at Amy, her smile growing wider, “It matches the letters.”  
“Yeah. Come on we gotta sit down before the tea is cold.”  
Nico follows Amy to the little white table she’s remembered Amy having forever and slips into the nearest seat. Neko goes on the table on the empty space next to her.  
“How many sugars you want Nico?”  
“Ummm,” she pauses just like she’s seen Papa do hundreds of times, “two please.”  
Amy grabs two sugar cubes from the empty sugar bowl and pours imaginary tea over them. Then she carefully moves the cup and saucer over to Nico with the warning “careful, it’s still hot.”  
Nico nods and carefully stirs the tea. She doesn’t want to spill any of it. What if it’s good tea this time?  
She lays the spoon back on the table, brings the cup to her lips and tastes it. “What tea is it today Amy?”  
“Orange.”  
Nico offers some to Neko who drinks a little. “Does that mean it’s orange?”  
“No, it’s brown or green.”  
“Oh. I like this one.”  
“It was Martha’s idea.”  
Nico looks at Martha who is calmly sitting in the chair next to Amy. Martha is Amy’s bear. She’s really soft and sometimes when Nico is scared Amy lets her hold Martha until she’s not feeling scared any more. “Thank you Martha.”  
“She says you’re welcome,” Amy translates.  
Nico finishes her tea after talking to Amy about space and how far away it is. “Thank you, Amy, but Neko and I gotta go. We got a a-ppointment.”  
“Okay, bye Nico. Bye Neko.”  
Nico leaves without another word. She cradles Neko and gives her scratches on her head right where she likes it the most. Together they slowly walked down stairs, well Nico did all the walking.  
At the bottom of the stairs Nico looked at Neko and whispered, “we have to be quiet, Mama working. Okay?”  
Okay, Nico.  
Nico and Neko peaked into Mama’s office. Sure enough, there was Mama at her desk. Her hair was pulled back like it was when she took Nico to daycare this morning, and she was still wearing the same clothes. Her shoes were by the door. Mama appeared to be drawing. Amy likes drawing too.  
Nico wanted a closer look. She took Neko into Mama’s office and placed her on Mama’s desk before going to Mama’s side. She patted Mama’s leg. “Mama, up.” She tried pulling herself on her mama’s lap. “Mama, up please.”  
Briefly she was in the air before she was carefully placed on Mama’s lap. Nico snuggled closer and looked at the paper in front of her. There were words and colors and pictures like her books. “Mama, are you done yet?”  
“Almost Nico. I just have a couple more lines.”  
Nico watched as her mama moved a yellow marker across the paper putting words in a solid box of yellow. “What are you doing?  
“Highlighting important information.”  
“Why are there so many colors?”  
“Some are notes and others are the information I need to remember.”  
“If you’re using colors does that mean you’re coloring?”  
“No, Nico. This is highlighting.”  
“Is that the same thing as coloring but for big kids?”  
Nico waited for an answer, but Mama was quiet for a long time. “Mama, is it the same?” she asked looking back at Mama.  
“Sort of.” Mama said carefully. Nico took that as she was right.  
“Can I help?”  
“Sure.” Mama grabbed Nico’s little hand and placed it over her own. Together they finished coloring the page.  
Nico was put back on the floor once Mama turned the music off. Neko was back in her arms and she decided to go find Papa and tell him about how she helped Mama finish her work by coloring.

**Author's Note:**

> Neko=Cat in Japanese  
> What did you think? Up dates happening every few days.


End file.
